Murata to buy MEMS firm for $260 million

LONDON – Japanese passives to power supplies giant Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. has announced it has agreed to buy VTI Technologies Oy (Vantaa, Finland) for about 20 billion yen (about 190 million euro or $260 million) in cash.

The deal is expected to close within six months, at which point VTI will become a wholly-owned subsidiary, Murata (Kyoto, Japan) said.

VTI, formed in 1991, is a privately held manufacturer of silicon-based capacitive 3-D MEMS sensors for automotive and medical applications. It produces a broad range of sensors covering acceleration, inclination, shock, vibration, angular velocity, and pressure. Murata said VTI is the world's leading manufacturer of low-G accelerometer for automotive and cardiac rhythm management systems. The company ownership is divided between private equity fund EQT and the management.

Murata said that VTI's strong presence in automotive and medical sensors complemented its own in sensors for consumer applications and that the acquisition would expand and strengthen its sensor business.

VTI had annual sales in the year to Dec. 31, 2010 of 76 million euro (about $100 million) and at that time employed about 600 people. Murata had annual sales of 618 billion yen (about $8 billion) in the year to March 31, 2011.

VTI is also a leader in "cavity SOI" in which the SOI wafer has pre-etched cavities, so they "focus on their core competencies in reducing development time, which in turn can even lower production costs" (Yole). http://www.advancedsubstratenews.com/2011/03/soi-for-mems-a-promising-material/

All of VTI Technologies’ MEMS products are based on SOI wafers. The company’s CMA 3000 multi-axis accelerometer is the “stride sensor chip” in the miCoach real-time training system launched by adidas and Samsung in '09. See http://www.advancedsubstratenews.com/2010/12/micoach/